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The IBO has just confirmed what we have long known – charter school students stay in charter schools at higher rates than students in nearby traditional public schools (TPS). Even more counter to charter detractors’ claims– fewer charter school special needs students leave their schools than nearby special needs district students.

The NYC DOE released its first School Quality Report from the 2013-14 school year. The report no longer includes an overall grade for each school, but instead presents multiple ratings on different aspects within 5 categories for charter schools: Student Progress, Student Performance, School Environment, Closing the Achievement Gap, and College and Career Readiness.

In Why the Gap? English Language Learners and New York City Charter Schools, a new report from the Manhattan Institute, Dr. Marcus Winters uses NYC DOE data from school years 2008-09 to 2011-12 to follow charter and district school ELLs over time. (Winters previously studied special education in NYC charter schools.)

New York State entered the 2013-14 school year—the second year of the Common Core era—with a pointed awareness of the challenges revealed by the 2012-13 test scores. The good news is that test scores released yesterday show progress across the board toward the goal of college and career readiness for all students in both Math and ELA.

Back in 2008, when Senator Obama was running against Senator McCain, something unusual happened in the final minutes of their third and very contentious, partisan debate. They agreed on something: charter schools were a good thing. They agreed on this one issue because charter schools when done right (as in NYC) are a good thing.

A new report from the NYC Independent Budget Office found that student attrition rates in charter schools are lower across nearly every student subgroup -- with the one exception, which contradicts previous research, being calculated from a tiny sample.

The NYC Department of Education (NYC DOE) released its 2012-13 Progress Reports for all public and charter schools*. Charter schools continue to earn a higher distribution of A and B grades than district schools; 69% of charter schools scored an A or B grade over 63% for the district.

The debate about charter school funding was split wide open last week when a new study found that charter schools receive much less public support per pupil, when accounting for the full value of retirement promises to district school teachers. The valuation matters because the City is not saving enough for today’s workers’ future benefits, instead effectively running up a credit card bill.